Moving horn to steering wheel, from under dash.

I enjoy tinkering and fixing little quirky things... but this one is strange. My car has a button for the horn, up under the dash. I suppose that was the low road to making a working horn. I bought a Flat Four Banjo wheel and an aftermarket horn button that has a little screw for a wire to go in. One place I lack is electrical knowledge. What would be the simplest way to move the horn from under the dash to the wheel. Should I just run in the existing wires that make the horn work now up through the column somehow? Thanks.

It is not going to be that simple, unfortunately.

VW horn wiring is engineered a little differently. The horn is always "hot" and pressing the horn button completes the "ground" which in turn makes the horn go beep. There are two spade connectors, one near the base of your steering column (front side of the firewall) and another at the steering box where it is grounded. The wire from your horn (steering wheel) should pass through the steering column and come out at the steering box after going through a rubber grommet. It should then connect to the brass spade connector.

There are lots of VW's out there with horn buttons mounted under the dash as they could not get the horn to work or it would honk continuously..

If you do a search on this site or thesamba you will find some good info on how to get your horn honkin.

Tim

My horn works fine, I don't understand why I can't just feed in the currently (pun intended) working wires up into the horn button? Actually, I just need to run 1 wire right? The ground on the original button can stay put?

make sure you wire it right:

Basically you need to wire it "hot", and ground to the button. button pressed, circuit complete, horn works. Is there not a relay with VW's?

Its not as easy as it sounds because running the wires up the center shaft will cause them to rotate around the shaft as you turn the wheel.

Check to see if you have a small tab located at the very bottom of the outer tube and also check to see if your column is electrically isolated from the chassis ground.

Mango dude, thanks for that helpful schematic! I learn something 'new' every time I visit this site.

Beetles don't have a horn relay.

Switched & Fused +12V --> Horn --> Outer Column Spade Lug (under tank).

This makes the outer column "hot" so you have to make sure the rubber isolation bushing is in place at the column mount. With the ignition off, check to see if you get continuity to ground at the outer column. If you do, you have to fix that. The outer column should be at +12V with the ignition on.

Horn Ring --> Wire Through Shaft --> Steering Box.

The wire that comes out of the shaft has to be connected to the steering box. At the rubber steering coupler there are 4 bolts. 2 bolts connect the steering shaft to the coupler and 2 bolts connect the steering box to the coupler. You must connect the wire to one of the bolts for the steering box to coupler connection. It won't work if you connect it to the steering shaft bolts.

The outer column tube and steering shaft (and thus steering wheel) are electrically connected through the upper bearing, completing the circuit when you press the button.

This aftermarket horn button has it's own ground screw/mount. Is there a hole where I can bypass using the stock column harness?

Which turn signal switch are you running?? It may have a place to connect a wire inside we need to know what you got too help you out to a perfect fix.. which horn ring on the bottom of your steering wheel .. What parts you have and what you need.


On my colum I had to add a copper spool and a contact brush and drill a hole in the shaft half way down the colum glued the spoll to the shaft right below the hole and soldered a wire to it and ran it back inside the shaft up to the top to connect the horn button its just like a 56 beetle .

the beetle had a brush on the outer colum case that rides on the spool your horn wire would connect to the brush but the brush and wire must be insulated from all metal parts. and the doenut thing at the bottom of you colum should have a wire jumper conneting to the coulm side and the steering box side to ground the center shaft to the steering box. Im guessing you have the 1967 bus turn switch with the built in dimmer switch (ITS THE NICEST ONE)

One of the guys here I think Mike Mckevy has picks of the conversion here ..

1970 Column, flat four wheel, aftermarket Porsche horn button from SierraMadre ... It never had a working horn that I know of ( sans the factory). I do not have high beams that I know of. The turn signal stalk has some spring when you pull it back, but it doesn't kick on or off anything. It might just be play. I'm about to pull the wheel and replace the wooded wheel next week. I'll shoot pics.

If your running a 70 turn switch and ignition keyed colum you have what you need there.
But you will need a horn ring under the steering wheel to catch the contact on the turn switch It's pretty simple.

And you do need a wireing diagram for a 70 to have all you need for a simple fix The 56 setup AN"T simple to duplicate But its what I wanted. My key switch is a 63 switch on the dash. it looks more like the real 356.